New system provides same-day bacterial detection

October 13, 2010
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by Jeff Gelski

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MINNEAPOLIS — Mocon, Inc. has introduced GreenLight, a screening system for same-day bacterial detection in food. It determines aerobic bacterial counts in such products as meat, poultry, seafood, dairy and produce.

“Companies will now have a faster, less labor-intensive screening method than the traditional agar plate process that is used by most manufacturing facilities,” said Tim Ascheman, senior project manager for Minneapolis-based Mocon. “Depending on the desired detection level, results can be obtained between minutes and 8 hours. This is significantly faster than the agar plate method, which typically requires 48 hours to achieve a meaningful microbial count.”

The GreenLight series provides a total viable count (TVC) or aerobic plate count (APC) of a food sample’s microbial load by using a sensing assay or vial. As bacteria in the test sample multiply and respire, they consume oxygen. The change in oxygen is used to calculate the original sample’s colony forming units per gram (cfu/g) for solids or per ml for liquids.

The GreenLight comes in two models. The Model 912 is compact and is designed for smaller labs and processing areas. The Model 960 was designed for larger labs that require higher throughput.

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